Outline: Characteristics of informal businesses in West Africa -- Institutional, regulatory and socio-cultural environment -- Costs and benefits of informality: productivity, living standards, and tax revenue -- Main conclusions and recommendations -- Chapter 1. The informal sector in West...

The paper discusses the relevance of past concerns about trade and foreign direct investment diversion to the detriment of Asian suppliers and hosts as a result of EU integration deepening and widening in the nineties. Based on recent empirical evidence, these concerns are rejected. As concerns...